Calallen High School Baseball

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Duel in the Valley. Ryan Duke outlasts Pira Rodriguez 2-1. Great pitching duel.

May 19, 2006 Brownsville Lobos Baseball Field.

#17 Ryan Duke drills that fast ball past the Brownsville Lobo batter. Ryan struck out 14, and allowed 5 hits.

There goes #2 Wes Callihan for second base; as he drilled a double to the fence. #5 Jeramie Marek comes in with the first run, of game one, in the opening inning against the Brownsville Lobos. Calallen 1 Brownsville 0.

The Lobo batter bunts, the Lobo on first base breaks for 2nd, Ryan Duke fields the baseball, whirls and fires to Jeramie Marek on second base. In time -- Out!

Credit Article: Brownsville Herald, Sport Section.

Wildcats take Game 1 from Lobos
BY MIKE GONZALEZ
The Brownsville Herald
May 20, 2006 — An outstanding pitching performance by Calallen’s stud right-
hander Ryan Duke gave the Wildcats an early advantage over Lopez in their
Class 4A best-of-three regional quarterfinal playoff series.

The junior struck out a whopping 14 Lobos and allowed five hits en route to the
defending state champions 2-1 win in Game 1. Game 2 shifts venues to the
Coastal Bend at 3 p.m. today at Calallen Baseball Field.

It was a battle of two of the premier pitchers in South Texas as Duke (10-2)
defeated Lobos right-hander Pira Rodriguez, who didn’t do too bad himself.
The Lopez junior also went the distance as he gave up two earned runs on
four hits and struck out seven.

Calallen head coach Steve Chapman expected Game 1 to be a tight well-pitched
game and is glad his ace came through.

“Excellent job (by Duke),” Chapman said. “He’s an excellent pitcher with good
location.”
Trailing 2-0, with the team down to their last three out, the Lobos (20-11 overall)
had a golden opportunity as Vale Montemayor drew a lead-off walk that
followed with a one-out walk by Luis Muñoz.

What was perhaps the biggest play of the game came when Rodriguez singled to
right and at first head coach Alberto Leal signaled the courtesy runner to
go home, but then at the last minute had him return to third. After his
momentum took him so far, the courtesy runner tried to return to the third
base bag and on a bang-bang play was called out by the umpire off a tag by
Calallen third baseman Wes Callihan.

Leal argued the call as he felt the runner was safe.

“My opinion was the kid got in,” Leal said. “It’s his call and there’s nothing you can
do about it.”

The play proved to be critical because it would’ve put the bases loaded with one
out with Juan Muñoz on deck. On the first pitch to the junior, Duke threw a
wild one, which could’ve easily have scored the courtesy runner had he’d
been called safe at third.

With runners at first and third and two outs, the catcher still came through with an
infield single that scored his brother Luis for the Lopez’ lone run. Luis
Medrano then flied to center field to give the Wildcats the edge going into this
afternoon.

Calallen (30-7) drew first blood in the first inning off Callihan’s RBI double, which
scored Jeremy Merek, who led off the contest with a single. In the fourth
inning, Ryan Miller scored what turned out to be the game-winning run in an
unusual fashion. While Miller was standing at third, Calallen’s Paul Flores was
off the second base bag and lost his footing after a Rodriguez pitch. Juan
Muñoz’s throw to Lopez shortstop Medrano at second was on target, but
Medrano couldn’t hold on to the ball, which allowed Miller to sneak home from
third.

Starters for Game 2 are still up in the air for both coaches. The Lobos will either
go with Leo Zamarripa (4-3) or Medrano (3-0). Zamarripa won Game 2 of
last week’s area round match against Beeville Jones.

mgonzalez@brownsvilleherald.com
Posted on May 20, 06 | 12:05 am

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